Clashes between protesters and police over unemployment, the high
cost of living and the repressive regime of President Zine al-Abidine
Ben Ali, are reportedly spreading across Tunisia, with the latest
protests in the city of Thala.

Despite the regime’s crude attempts to stop reporting, including
blocking facebook and blogs, protests are reported to have taken place
in high schools, following the re-start of schools after the holiday
break this week. Demonstrations planned for 3 January by the students in
Tunis were blocked by police.

Last week, lawyers joined protests but were attacked by police.
Lawyers once again protested on Monday at the main courthouse in Tunis.
The Tunisian Bar Association announced a “general strike” for next
Thursday in protest over the police attacks.

The protests began in Sidi Bouzid town, last December, after a
young graduate, Mohamed Bouazizi, set himself on fire when police
stopped him selling from a street stall. This triggered country-wide
demonstrations against poverty, unemployment and a lack of democratic
rights.

Below we publish a message of solidarity, sent last week, from Joe
Higgins, Socialist Party
(CWI Ireland) Member of European Parliament (MEP), to Tunisian trade
unionists, socialists and democracy activists.

Socialistworld.net

Dear Comrades and Friends,

I have followed with great interest the mass protests taking place in
Tunisia over the last week. I applaud the courageous action of youth,
trade unionists, socialists and thousands of working people in taking to
the streets to protest against mass unemployment, falling living
standards and a lack of basic democratic rights. Your mass revolt
against such a repressive regime is an inspiring example to working
people and youth everywhere.

The conditions in which the people of Tunisia forced to live are
deplorable, with the great majority of Tunisians face rising inflation
and high unemployment while the corrupt ruling elite flaunts its wealth.
Even the US, which supports the Tunisian dictatorship, in a cable
released by Wikileaks, described the family of President Zine el
Abindine Ben Alias a “quasi mafia” and the Tunisian regime as a “police
state”.

The fact that unemployed graduate, Mohammad Bouazizi, set himself alight
after police confiscated the fruit and vegetables he was trying to sell
in Sidi Bouzid town – sparking the recent protests - and that another
young man committed suicide by throwing himself onto a high-voltage
cables in protest at unemployment, speaks volumes about the deep sense
of frustration and even desperation felt by many Tunisians. From other
examples in history, we can see that a social explosion is inherent in
this situation and can quickly become a mass movement against the
continued rule of the regime.

I salute your courage in the face of systematic state repression that
sees any dissent suppressed and tortured used routinely. Despite the
regime’s attempts to stop journalists covering the last few days of
protests, it is reported in Europe that police repression led to the
deaths of two protesters, at least. I strongly condemn this and the
regime’s other attempts to crush growing opposition, including attacks
against thousands of workers outside the offices of the Tunisian General
Union of Labour, in Tunis, and police attempts to stop a demonstration
by the Tunisian General Confederation of Labour, in Gafsa.

The problems facing working people are inter-linked on a global level:
the dramatic fall in tourist revenue in Tunisia is linked to the
economic and social crisis in Europe and governments’ attempts to make
workers pay for the crisis of the capitalist system with savage
austerity measures. This is causing a sharp decline in living standards
and large-scale job losses throughout Europe, not least in Ireland, and
a subsequent collapse in tourism. A solution to the deep problems facing
working people in Europe, Tunisia, North Africa and everywhere requires
united workers’ action and solidarity across all borders.

Call for 26 January mass demonstration

I learnt from my CWI comrades in Lebanon that a call has been made for a
huge protest demonstration, in Tunis, on 26 January 2011, and for
solidarity protests and lobbies of Tunisian embassies in the run-up to
this important event. I fully support this call and I and the CWI will
do all we can to bring this issue to the attention of the workers’
movement in Europe and further afield. I pledge to highlight your fight
for democratic rights, including the right to organise, assemble and
protest, and to form independent unions. I support your struggles for
jobs and against the regime’s disastrous privatisation programme and the
ending of state subsidies for food.

Despite President Zine el Abindine Ben Alias’s reputation for iron rule
over two decades, I believe that the mass action you and thousands of
others have taken, so far, has already shaken the regime, leading to
government ‘pledges’ to create new jobs and the sacking of some
ministers. I fully support your continuing efforts to employ the
traditional methods of mass struggle of the workers’ movement, including
mass protests, strikes and general strikes. I am confident that such
mass struggles will also bring to the fore the need for the working
people and youth of Tunisia to have a party that represents their class
interests, not that of the corrupt ruling elite, and for a genuine
democracy – a government based on the needs of the working class and
poor, the mass of society.

Please let me know what other action I and the CWI can take to aid you
at this crucial time.